Musicians utilise percussion instruments to establish beat. In many styles of music musicians use a number of types of percussion instruments to establish complex structures to the beat. In order to employ a number of types of percussion instruments it is generally necessary to utilise a number of musicians or arrange the music in a manner in which the operation of multiple percussion instruments are staggered. A limited number of percussion instruments allow more than one type sound to be produced. These types of percussion instruments require the use of complex actions to generate multiple types of percussive sounds. Either the musician must use an additional hand or must interrupt the playing of the first instrument in order to produce a second percussive sound.
The use of a number of musicians to play percussion instruments is generally impractical. Bands of musicians that perform are limited in size for economic and logistic factors. In order for a band of musicians to be economically viable it is necessary for their numbers to be limited. Further, the coordination of a large number of musicians is logistically complex and, from a musical timing point of view, difficult to control. Accordingly, it is desirable to maximise the usage of the musicians by enabling the musicians to produce a greater number of sounds.
There have previously been produced a variety of compound instruments that are unable to the production of a plurality of sounds types. For example, musicians often utilise a guitar not only as a stringed instrument but also as a percussion instrument by striking of the hollow body of the guitar. This type of use of a guitar takes advantage of the hollow body of the guitar rather than use a second type of instrument. In a drum kit a multiplicity of percussion instruments are provided. There may be a variety of different drum types as well as cymbals that maybe struck by the drummer. Whilst the drummer may play one or more drums, in order to play the cymbals the drummer either has to strike the cymbals with a drumstick in the inactive hand or interrupt playing the drums.